Missed Connections Despite

Missed Connections Despite

for orchestra(2017)

Commissioned by the Iowa State University Symphony Orchestra

missed connections despite is a series of 11 polaroids for orchestra.

I imagine the work like a collage of found photographs (from the boxes of mismatched polaroids you might find in a vintage store or at an estate sale) stitched together to create a new narrative of other people’s stolen memories.

As I scan through the boxes of anonymous pictures, I realize that they represent intimate moments in time that someone wished to remember: loved ones, a favorite vacation spot, a sporting event, a sunset— common household objects, roadside signage, a crime scene, a mnemonic, and so on. The context in which these photos were taken, along with their meaning, is lost. Out of human nature to order the disordered, I assign and impose my own meaning — my own story — to these found memories. They become my family, my lovers, my time, my memories. They become my nostalgia.

Like the polaroids-in-a-box analogy, my piece stitches together 11 musical ‘images’, some of which are related, some of which are not. Alone, each of these images gives a simulacrum of a musical memory, place, or time. Together, they create a new narrative, a new story, a new life. I have given each of these an arcane title, not to enforce any kind of particular illustration, but to give the listener the latitude to wander — to instill their own interpretation to the music.